Slaveholders In Slavery

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

Slavery in America started in 1619 when settlers brought over African Americans to Jamestown, Virginia. The slaves came to Jamestown to work on the tobacco plantations. The slaves were also sent to other colonies such as South Carolina to work on the cotton plantations. Slaves were people who worked for no pay. This caused the land owners to make more profit from their plantations because they didn’t have to pay their workers. Southern slave owners, specifically in South Carolina, relied on slavery as a major part of their economy.

Virgina has differences and similarities when it comes to slave narratives. To explain further, this is why the details and experiences that these ex-slaves gave in describing the institution of slavery and the practice of slavery are tremendously important because Virginia became a royal colony, the first in English history. However, the English kings were occupied with affairs at home, the Virginia house of burgesses was able to continue its functions and won formal recognition in the late 1630s. Thus, representative government under royal domain was assured. By 1641, when Sir William Berkeley became governor, the colony was well established and extended on both sides of the James up to its falls.

During the colonization period on the US territory, England used racism to facilitate and legalize slavery. In 1705 Virginia Act established that slavery would apply to those people who were not Christians. Most of the slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also had slaves. In part due to success business around the tobacco in the southern colonies and the high demand for labor associated with it, the plantation owners turned to increase the importation of slaves into the late seventeenth century, a phenomenon no equally occurred in the north colonies. The south had a significantly higher number and proportion of slaves in the population. This method was emotional and physical all together.

The smell of blood in the air grew thick. You hear the screams of the slaves with big, bloody scars all over their backs. You see the look of horror on people’s faces, and then noticed the expression on the slave owners face, an expression of pure malice. This was the treatment of the slaves back in the 1800’s. They experienced a lot of unfairness and racism for being African. These events can be compared to the racism people experience today. Racism and unfairness are issues and ongoing problems that need to be addressed because they both lead to violence. This is showing that history repeats itself and will always come back.

Labor has always been a key component in the lives of humans. In North America, wealthy landowners searched for the cheapest system of labor. The labor system that was utilized was the system of indentured servitude. Indentured servants, usually consisting of Europeans, were workers who agreed to surrender their freedom for a period of time on the arrangement that at the end of the period, the servant will be given autonomy and land (Lecture, September 18, 2017). However, during the late 1600s, the antiquated labor arrangement became more obstructive and codified in which race-based slavery became prevalent. Many factors such as, the rise of tobacco, Bacon’s Rebellion, and the increased African slave trade contributed to the transformation of racially based slavery. Despite the factors, ethnic hatred is the main catalyst that evolved society into a slave society of oppression.

Every country has a dark past, whether it’s about conquering land from Native Americans, or mass genocide of a single race. The United States was no different from the rest of the world, especially when slavery was involved. The South had its reasons on why to establish and justify the slavery system while the North rejected their beliefs. By focusing on the South’s argument, this will help to understand why they fought for their rights to keep slaves and understand how the African Americans were able to keep their dignity, have identity, and freedom.

In such a system, slavery was necessary because it produced a master class that greatly differed from the ruling class of capitalist and industrial society. Slave owners treated their work force with regulated care; assumed life-long responsibility for the sick, old, and dying; and were committed to their community. Capitalists hired classes of manual laborers who were treated as "wage slaves;" fired their employees if they became ill, sick, or less productive; and accepted no civil or community responsibility. Southerners argued that their right to own property slaves was guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. In short, slavery was a blessing to an inferior race and the cornerstone of democracy because it avoided the bitter class divisions of the north, while also ensuring the freedom and independence of all white men. Lincoln 's election fed the perception that Southern interests were losing control of the federal government, and that this government would eventually suppress the institution of slavery or outlaw it altogether. Lincoln 's victory in 1860 was far from dominant he received 1,887 votes in Virginia and did not appear on the ballot in any other state which eventually joined the Confederacy. Lincoln won other states (such as California, Oregon, Illinois, and Indiana) by somewhat narrow margins. Only in the Upper Midwest and in New England did he have a dominant political position, (Bryan, 2013).

During the majority of the nineteenth century, slavery was still prevalent until a couple years after the Civil War. This period is when slavery was slowly diminishing as time progressed, but not as much as anti-slavery individuals and organizations would have wanted, particularly in the north. These individuals were willing to put everything on the line to permanently abolish slavery, which was mostly still in existence in the south. Not even official government documents could eliminate the presence of slavery that existed, even if they were from the President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, extra help and force were needed, even if it was from someone that the people of the United States were not expecting. Frederick Douglass was continuously called by government officials to offer guidance on how the strategic abolishment of slavery should be completed. Douglass was invited to the White House numerous time to discuss the issue with President Lincoln, and the door was always open to him whenever he needed to discuss ideas of civil importance with the President.

Imagine your life as if you were treated worst than a dog or a stray animal and treated as someone’s property. Slavery was the practice or system of owning people. Not only that slavery is “social and economic movement relationship in which a person is controlled through either violence or its threat, paid nothing and economically exploited”, stated The American Journal of International Law. It was a part of life that existed for a very long time. Slavery began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Slaves were bought and sold, and used as laborers under orders of whoever owned them. Slaves were treated as prisoners in their own skin because they couldn’t do nothing for themselves but listen to people’s commands. Slaves were forced to listen to their owner without any say so. When talking about this touchy topic slavery was about having no choices at all to what happened, slaves had no control of their lives, and slaves constantly had a fear of violence.

As far back as we reach, the keeping of slaves/ servants has been a part of civilization, and make no mistake, civilization only. Prior to that, there was no need since life was simple; hunt, gather and eat was the way to go. At the time, a slave would have been simply another mouth to feed, and they would have had to hunt as well. The “need” for slaves comes as man “civilizes” and reaches out for cheap labor. But Slavery as we know it now is not at all as it was in the past. Slaves in Babylon were allowed to own land; slaves in Greece and Rome were afforded privileges based on their status, and was mostly owned by the state. While there were incidences of cruelty, for the most part they were isolated. The Muslims kept slaves as well, and while the Qur’an doesn’t speak against it directly, it espouses good treatment of them and in particular the females. There is altogether no comparison in the way these slaves were kept and treated as opposed to in Christian Communities.

“In the Americas, slavery was based on the plantation, an agricultural enterprise that brought together large numbers of workers under the control of a single owner. This imbalance magnified the possibility of slave resistance and made it necessary to police the system rigidly. It encouraged the creation of a sharp boundary between slavery and freedom. Labor on slave plantations was far more demanding than in the household slavery common in Africa, and the death rate among slaves much higher. In the New World, slavery would come to be associated with race, a concept that drew a permanent line between whites and blacks. Unlike in Africa, slaves in the Americas who became free always carried with them in their skin color the mark of bondage

The life of African slaves in America was a difficult journey. Slaves were treated like animals, having no hope and even no dignity. Most of them were from West Africa. Roughly 20 million were pulled out of their homes, and taking from their homeland into slavery. Half didn't complete the jouney while dying along the way. It was known as the Middle Passage because the cargo was part of a thre part voyage. The first cargo arrived carrieng iron, cloths, brandy ,firarms, and gunpowder where it was exchanged for Africans. While sailing for America the slaves were exchanged for tobacco, sugar and other products. Africans were bound and shackled with chains, and their necks were tied with a leather brace. They were kept under the ship know as the

“Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man’s nature; opposition to it on his love for justice.” This saying by Abraham Lincoln tells us that people are really different when it comes to their beliefs and attitudes. Some are so focused on wealth, which is why they have slaves to work for free, and treated them as properties instead of real human beings. On the other hand, some people were against slavery because it violated the basic human rights like the right to life, liberty, and security. Slavery in the United States was present for 245 years, slaves helped form the economic foundations of the new nation or as what we call it now as The United States of America. Nevertheless, slavery will never be right, that is why there were

The slaves made up one third of the population, most of them lived in small farms provided by their slaveholder. Slaves weren’t allowed to do many things, meaning they weren’t allowed to learn how to read and write so most of them were basically illiterate. They were also not allowed to make their own decisions. The slaveholders had all power over them, which made the slaves really dependent over them. If a slave was to act out on them, the slave would be severely punished and tortured by the slaveholder. If a slave was to get married and have children (if allowed), the slave owners would not care to divide the slaves and have them sold. Which also gave the slave owners money after selling the